Thailand is loud and makes no excuses for it. I find myself amused by everything that is going on around me and thought I should make a list of the noises that surround me here...starting at about 5am! These are the sounds I will miss being part of my daily life once they are gone.
- Roosters cock-a-doodle-doing: They say roosters crow when the sun rises. That is a lie!
- Constant Music: Music seems to always be playing. If you take a bus music blars for most of the trip. Students play music from their cell phones during free time. My neighboors start the tunes up as soon as they wake up (5:30am!) and it plays late into the evening, sometimes until past 11pm on a school night though this is usually accompanied by whiskey influenced singing as well. Classic Thai music is played for two hours everyday after school by the school band and after dinner an aspiring student rock band practices in the music building....and lets not forget Karaoke! I believe that someone is always singing Karaoke in Thailand.
- Shouting: There are no doorbells in Thailand. Instead, you stand under someone's window yelling their name over and over until the respond. There is no "cut off" time for this either, I have had neighbors outside my house yelling for my roomate at 6am on a Sunday morning.
- Motorcycles: Everyone seems to have a moto, cars are the minority. The motos zoom around everywhere, sounding like angry bugs buzzing all over the countryside.
- Loud Speakers: Loudspeakers come in many forms here. Every little village has a loud speaker system set up. When I first arrived in Thailand I can remember being awakened by the loudspeaker ridiculously early one morning and thinking that there must be some emergency occuring...but no, it was just time to update the village on all the local news. Trucks with speakers strapped to them blaring advertisements are an everyday occurrence too, they keep you informed on the latest sale, whose got the best watermelon and what movies are playing in town. My school also has a loudspeaker system and everyday at 7am they start playing music and announcements.
- Dogs: Dogs are almost a wild animal here. They run around the villages in small packs, fighting with one another and trying to keep their "territory" under control. Needless to say their howls, barks and fights can be heard all day and night long.
- Bugs: Bugs are everywhere here and emit a symphony of noise. The buzz of their wings, the chirp of crickets, the eerie scream of cicadas, the list goes on and on.
- Lizards and Amphibians: Little geckos chirp through out the day while the Tukae Gecko calls for a mate at night. Toads chortle, frogs rib-bit, and strange unknown amphibians make a noise like the trouble board popper.
- Cows and Waterbuffalo: Herds of cows and water buffalo wander the lands around my school. I love to hear the tinkle of their bells and the sound of their "mooing" and "mawing" to one another.
- The Rain: The rainy season here has brought the delightful sound of rain. I love to listen to it pelt the tin roof and drip to the ground from the awnings.
- Thai: Lastly the sound I think I will miss the most is the Thai language. It surrounds me here. Be it in class, sitting with the teachers at my school, eating dinner with my Thai family the sound of spoken Thai floats around me. Its become comforting, a little like background music, a soundtrack to my life. I can't even imagine what it will be like to understand all the words being spoken around me when I return home.
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